Reviews of silent film releases on home video. Copyright © 1999-2024 by Carl Bennett and the Silent Era Company. All Rights Reserved.

The Burning Soil (1922)

Released nearly concurrently with his film Nosferatu (1922), director F.W. Murnau’s multilayered tale of simple agrarian life, class conflict, unrequited love, ambition, betrayal and greed stars Eugen Klöpfer, Lya de Putti, Werner Krauss and Alfred Abel.

Old Rog (Werner Krauss) lays dying. At his bedside is faithful son Peter (Eugen Klöpfer), but the father is waiting for the arrival of his other son Johannes (Vladimir Gajdarov). Arriving too late, Johannes continues his inner struggle to become something more than a peasant farmer’s son.

Meanwhile, an ancient tale of a treasure of oil deep in the ground of Devil’s Field obsesses Count Rudenberg (Eduard von Winterstein), and he attempts to manage the stone cold relationship between his jaded daughter, Gerda (Lya de Putti), and wealthy Ludwig von Lellewel (Alfred Abel).

When Johannes seeks lodging at the Rudenberg estate, rather than stay at the family farm, he develops a friendly relationship with Gerda, and one day he overhears the confirmation of oil deposits in the Devil’s Field that the count has been waiting for. Drawing up the count’s last will, Johannes is privy to the count’s plan to leave Devil’s Field to his second wife, Helga (Stella Arbenina), and his existing fortune to Gerda. Transferring his attentions to Helga, the ambitious Johannes schemes to control and develop the Devil’s Field.

A film in the Murnau canon that is not usually seen nor discussed, The Burning Soil cannot be overlooked as an effective condemnation of industrial greed and a validation of the hard but rewarding agrarian life — an infrequent but reoccurring Murnau theme.

— Carl Bennett

This DVD-R edition, originally prepared for Grapevine Video release on VHS videotape in 2001, has been mastered from an analog videotape duplicate of a video transfer of a 35mm reduction print. The full-frame transfer runs faster than natural speed, and the video duplicate (likely a PAL VHS videocassette) is of a slightly lower resolution than commonly found on DVD, causing some fluctuations in the intertitles and subtitles type. Line-doubling the DVD signal still doesn’t hide the resolution lines that can be seen in a standard resolution picture.

The color-toned and color-tinted source print appears to be a restoration, as the German language intertitles have been reset in a modern type. The print is quite flecked with dust in a few shots, with a normal amount of speckling, emulsion scuffing, frame jitters, and moderate exposure fluctuations persistent throughout. Deep shadows are plugged up, but the remaining range of colortones are well-balanced with reasonably intact highlight detail. On a high-definition monitor, there will be no missing the fine crosshatch pattern of pixels throughout the picture — most prevalent in the middle tones.

The film is accompanied by an orchestral music score compiled from preexisting recordings.

While far from perfect (and there is considerable room for improvement), this edition of The Burning Soil is currently our recommended home video edition until a better disc comes along.

This Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition is available directly from . . .

The film is likely accompanied by a soundtrack compiled from preexisting music recordings.

Not recommended, sight unseen, but we note the significantly longer running time of this edition compared to the Grapevine Video edition noted above.

This Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition is available directly from . . .

Other GERMAN FILMS of the silent era available on home video.